No failure is more painful than failing a rep of double-unders. I mean, how annoying does it get, flogging yourself with a CrossFit jump rope? Well this can be quite a regular incident when pairing skipping with a strength or gymnastic movement, and call the mix a crossfit workout. And I am sure all of us know that feeling.

Until you don’t put skipping into a crossfit WOD, working out with a jump rope is primarily an aerobic type of exercise. This means your body uses oxygen to “burn” glucose and fat to produce adenosine triphosphate – the energy carrier that keeps you moving. It also boosts your heart rate and breathing, and pretty often makes you sweat. Apart from that, training with a jump rope offers several other health benefits:

Strengthens the heart muscle and improve its functioning.

Improves the efficiency of respiratory system: facilitates the flow of air in, through and out of the lungs.

Of course as with other conditioning types of movements, how hard the jump rope workouts will get, depends on your engine.

For beginnersskipping itself will resemble a high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Rookie athletes will use more power and energy for a single jump, meaning they will be less efficient, have shorter burst of movement and more frequent rest breaks.

A jump rope pro will distribute the energy more efficiently. Their skipping will be softer and cleaner, and performed at a lower intensity which will feel similar to jogging or light running workout. However even pros can break down when tackling on a brutal jumping rope CrossFit WOD.

Why are WODs with a jump rope so hard?

With muscle fatigue, elevated heart rate and heavy breathing, coping with movements which demand a certain level of coordination and agility, such as double-unders, is not an easy task. For all pros who find double-unders too easy, jump rope crossfit workouts might be a great idea.

These WODs combine aerobic exercise with complementary anaerobic movements, such as complex strength exercises which exhaust your muscles and initiate fatigue, and consequently put your skipping coordination to the test. What is primarily a low intensity aerobic activity suddenly becomes a high intensity, metabolic conditioning event.

Try those brutal jump rope crossfit workouts

Skipping rope, especially twice or three times in a single jump, under fatigue opens up a whole new world of discomfort. And the following WODs prove just that.

Beware: Before tacking on any of the following jump rope crossfit workouts, keep in mind patience is a great virtue.

500 double-unders with a twist

We’ll start off with a simple workout which has recently been posted on CrossFit’s main page. 500 double-unders for time does not feel like to-the-hell-and-back workout. At least until you realized you have to perform 3 body-weight front squats at the beginning of each minute.

Instruction:

500 double-unders

3 body-weight front squats

(beginning of each minute)

At the beginning of each minute perform 3 bodyweight front squats. Rest of the time/minute: perform AMRAP double-unders until you hit 500 reps.

Hero WOD with triple-unders: Cameron

This hero workout was created to honour U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Cameron who lost his life during a military training mission. It is one of those rare WODs which involves triple-unders.

http://www.fondastrong.com/
Polona has been working in sports media for almost a decade. She is a former editor of the biggest European online magazine on functional fitness with expertise in graphic and interactive communication. Business aside, Polona is also a former competitive alpine skier with a passion for weightlifting, crossfit and outdoor sports.